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THE FOREST TREES 

CHRISTMAS MCMXIII 







EDV/ARD HUNGERFORD 
171 WOODRUFF AVENUE 
JBROOKUYN ; ^SiiW YOSi'v 






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COPYRIGHT 191 3 BY EDWARD HUNGERFORD 



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THE FOREST TREES ^ DRAWING BY EARL HORTER 




THE FOREST TREES /BY EDV/ARD HUNGERFORD 




EN WERE striking down the forest. With 
swinging axes they were robbing it of its trees. 
.... For many centuries the forest had stood 
inviolate, unpolluted by the vandal hand of 
man, a great green blanket that covered many 
miles of hills and valleys, and gave seclusion to 
both beasts and birds. 

But the nervous hungry hand of man came upon 
it, and great open spaces came to view, where 
man's animals would gra2;e, where the earth 

would grow his crops Here and there 

some trees remained .... On a shouldering and somewhat sightly emi/ 
nence, five grew together, until it should be man's will to cut them down. 
Four of these were tall and fine, the fifth, gnarled, miserable and deformed. 
The four straight trees could lift their heads high and talk across the gentle 
range of the hills, and on clear days in the distance see a snow/capped peak. 
In after years men came to call it Inspiration Mountain for it was said that it 
had been known to give insight to men and things as to their future. 
To the trees are given voices, although man, whom they silently serve, may 

never be permitted to hear them So, on a starlight night, when man 

was fast asleep in his little town, and the distant peak glowed, they whispered 
softly, one to the other. 

■f -f 1 
Spake the fir it tree. He was a rotund beech , who all the day splashed his 
feet in the soft waters of a spring: 

Man thinks a deal of me. I serve to keep him warm against the chills and the 
bitterness of winter. Fm fat, o^ho! and my round belly makes a square meal for 
some hungry, wide/jawed fireplace. I cheer man and I comfort him. When my 
turn comes, I may spend a whole day in his service. 

The second tree was a jolly fir. Spake he: 

At Christmas they will come for me. They will put me in the biggest house, 
and hang all manner of gay trinkets upon me. I shall be alight and a/flutter with 
delight. The little children will gather about me and adorn me. It will be the 
very greatest week of my life. 



The third tree spake. She was a quaking ash, a tree of modest mien. She kept 
her eyes lowered as she spake and nervously shivered her silvery leaves. 
Mine is an humble role and I shall bear it with humility and patience. My 
heart is to be cut out for an old man's stafif. I shall be his comfort and his sup/ 
port. 1 shall be true. It takes a straight true tree to make an old man's staff. 1 
shall help him many years. 

The pine tree was the tallest of the four. She stood ered, slim, straight and 
trim, and spake to her fellows : 

1 shall do man's service upon the sea. I am to be the mast of one of his great 
ships. All my life I have lived with this great hope. At my head floats his 
flag, and his flag shall sweep the seas, victorious. For a half a hundred years, 
1 shall be the spars of man's ship. 

The fifth tree was silent, for let it be remembered that he was crippled and 

dwarfed and saw not the mountain of inspiration. 

f -f f 

Straightway they fell to quarreling among themselves there in the silence of 

the night. 
" You ask him" said the quaking ash to the fir. 
"Not 1," he answered, "1 know these oaks. They prate of their lineage, as like 

as not, he '11 tell that acorn story." 

So they quarreled among one another, until finally the graceful pine was em/ 

boldenedtoask: 
"You have not told us of your future." 

The fifth tree was silent for a long time, while the others rustled. 

Then he answered : 
" 1 shall do my master's bidding." 

1 1 -f 

On the next morn, when the warm summer sun was up, three men came trail/ 
ing up the hillside from the village. One was Louis the woodman, in hisleath/ 
ern breeches, and the trees all shivered at the sight of him. With him was 
a priest and a stranger — a misshapen little man with great horn spectacles 
set upon his nose. They came close to the growth of five trees. 

"They cannot need me," whispered the larch. "'Tis summertime and man's 
hearthstones are cold." 

" 'Tis half a year to Christmas-tide," echoed the fir. The quaking ash and the 



pine said nothing, but shivered in great expectancy But the men 

passed all these by. The pine pricked up her heaving branches and gave atten/ 

tion to the talk of the men It was quite clear to her after a moment. 

The priest was the cure of the little church that had just reared its head in the 
bottom of the valley. He was filled with regrets that he and his could offer 
naught but so humble a house to God. A golden chalice, a marble altar, were 
his heart's desire, and these he might not have. He had come up into the forest 
that he might find rare wood for his altar. 

"Why do they stop by oak?" whispered the pine. "He hath no beauty for the 
altar in the temple." 

But the little old man had clearly signalled to cut down the gnarled tree. He 
was examining it critically through his great spectacles, which fairly gleamed 
with enthusiasm. He addressed the young priest, saying: 

" Once and only once in the generation does God send this tree to man. It is the 
rarest and the most beautiful in all the forest." 

He raised his arm and Louis' axe struck true. The short axe quickly cut the 
tree asunder, and as its great trunk rolled down upon the ground, the pine saw 
that her neighbor was an oak. His heart was manyhued as if a master artist 

had spread his palette with his very heart The little old man was 

ablazie with enthusiasm. 

" Father," said he, "we will let the altar wait. From the heart of this tree I will 
carve you, for the blood of Christ, the most beautiful chalice in all the world." 

■f 1 1 
Centuries after the beech had sputtered his life out to ashes on man's hearth' 
stone, the fir had given happiness to children long since dead, the ash had 
been forgotten, and the ship w^herein the pine was the spar had been wrecked 
in unfriendly seas, the heart of the misshapen tree still rested upon the altar. 
The little town became a noisy city, the tiny church a grey and shadowy 
cathedral and all the while, the chalice stood upon the holy place. To-day 
men's lips still touch its rim— reverently in memory of Christ. 



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